Difficulty

The heart is crowded with desires;

The soul is in love with solitude.

The choices leave me indecisive,

Why is it so difficult being human?

ना गिले - ना शिकवे

No qualms and no complaints!

Serene silence during Sunrise at Chitrakote falls, Chattisgarh (PC: Myself!)

अब अगर आप नहीं करतें हैं मुझपे यक़ीन,

तो ना है मुझे आप से कोई गिले - शिकवे |

आखिर कब तक ऐसे ही चलेंगे ये सिलसिले,

वक़्त के सित्तम में बेज़ुबान सी हो जाते हैं रिश्तें |

Now if thou can't repose any trust in me,

I have no qualms and no complaints about it.

After all, how long will these affairs go as such?

Relationships get silenced in the tyranny of time.

ना साथ, ना तन्हा

At Table Land, Panchgani, Maharashtra
PC: Myself

-1-

 

ना वो बिताते है चंद लम्हे अब हमारे साथ,
ना उनके साथ बिताये लम्हे तन्हा रहने देते है हमें।

(Neither do they keep my company any more,

Nor do their lingering memories let me stay alone.)

-2- 

शायद भूल हमारी ही थी, ख्वाब जो बुन बैठे थे,

बस अमावास की रात में जलती चिंगारी बन बैठे थे। 

(Probably the mistake was all mine to have knit dreams,
I had only been the burning flame on a moonless night.)

Discover new lands

Bellary Fort, (PC: Myself)

They have all said -

If one knows not where she is headed,

No wind shall ever aid her voyage.

But I simply wonder -

If all knew where they were headed,

No explorer would ever discover new lands.

बादलों से शर्त

Picture Courtesy: Google Image Search

ना हैं कभी लगाना बादलों से शर्त मुझे 

रोते हैं वो रंग-ए-मौसम बदलने तक ।

बस गुज़रे हुए उनके यादों में रोना हैं मुझे

रंग-ए-दिल मेरे खून-ए-जिगर होने तक । 

(Never would I want to bet with the clouds
They cry till the colours of the season change.
I only have to cry in the memory of those gone by
Till my heart is coloured by the bleeding of the liver.)

I am and I am not

PC: mpmuseum.org

I am not the uniform that I am made to wear.

I am not the tie that hangs around my neck.
I am not the blazer that sweats me in summer.
I am not the nameplate that boasts my rank.

I am neither the wrinkles on my attire,
Nor am I the scars on my wooden face.
I am neither how upright I stand and stare,
Nor am I how mild or aggressive I sound.

There is more to me than that meets the eye,
Like all, I too am human and have emotions,

Thoughts and feelings, beliefs and prejudices,

Strengths and weaknesses, instincts and reasons.

I could be a refined gentleman, a savage beast,
An impractical idealist, an intellectual nihilist,
A reasonable realist, shrewd strategist, neo-narcissist
I could be none of these, yet more than their aggregate.
To fit me into groups, classify into classes is futility;
For, I am no exception away from this eternal evolution.

Gift of democracy!

   

Whom to curse as I am made to wait?? (PC: Myself)

  

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting." - Charles Bukowski

     The citizen looked blank because he knew not whom to curse. He was waiting for change and reform since the day they were promised to him.  When he explained his predicament, I too was perplexed and shared his confusion. If it was an autocracy or an anarchy or something of that sort, we could have cursed someone specific. But damn it, this was democracy!!

     He clearly knew he was a citizen, a part of the public; he had to find a public servant in a public office to attend to his problems. Irrespective of being part of a major or minor socio-religious group from which he derived a sense of identity, his existence as an individual citizen had bestowed on him the right to demand for the redressal of his grievances.

    But all that the much hyped and promised democracy offered was a government with its ministers and officers. The guarded government spaces, the rigid bureaucratic structures and the erudite officer elite who manned them! Among these government officers where were the public servants the citizen had to approach? Whom was he to fight with for justice? Whom was he to curse for his plight? Had the public sphere vanished into thin air as the reach and spread of the government had widened by leaps and bounds?

        Has it always been a struggle for the survival of the 'public' at the mercy of the 'government'? Or is it the modern 'gift of democracy'!?